Greenstein (1965) Children and Politics

Chapter 3 Children's Feelings About Political Authority

We know that adults are somewhat inconsistent in their support of political leaders; in general they distrust leaders, yet when asked specifically about the office of governor, or senators, they in fact do respect those in these positions. This chapter focuses on the antecedent to these oscillating opinions and leadership assumptions adults hold by looking at children.

Sample: 659 kids in New Haven, CT; questionnaire.

three classes of New Haven findings (1) children's ranking of the importance of political leaders; (2) their evaluations of the incumbent president, gov, or mayor; (3) and their spontaneous statements.


(1) ranking of the importance of political leaders: in order...
children's views of political leaders are substantially more favorable than their parents'.
President, Mayor, Doctor, Police Chief, Judge, School Teacher, Religious leader, School Principal.
Although children are emphatic in the response when asked in the President is important, very young children are unable to actually say what the president does.

(2) ...the benevolence of leaders
six open ended items asking for descriptions of political duties uncovered several classes of answers:
(a) services to children--i.e. the mayor makes parks and swings
(b) normative role--the mayor does "good" things
(c) general benevolence--the mayor is belpful, a protector, etc. As children age, their opinion that political leaders are benevolent goes down considerably.


Back to the beginning...
must look not just at the socialization agents, but also the (socialized) children themselves--their characteristics that make them vulnerable/sponge-like, or not.

What is the source of the child's view of authority? Where does political learning take place?
-civic instruction (from family activities)
*children overhear political conversations between their parents
*parents talk to their kids about politics--but they sugar coat it. ...almost as if politics is "bad" for kids
-schools
*reciting the pledge and other rituals
national heros are discussed
-the media
*willy nilly exposure, since children do not generally watch political news
lastly, though not specifically derived from an agent, is this idea put for originally by Lasswell (!948) that says children associate political leaders (adults) with the adults they already know simply bc they are just both adults! and on the whole, the adults the child interacts with on a daily basis are their friends/protectors. these good feelings, then, are projected onto political leader, by kids.

...most of the former socialization agents and the particular function they serve for children (i.e. sugar coated political talk with parents) leads children to lack political cynicism (46). This begins to subsides as the child reaches preadolescence.

What are the consequences of this view of authority held by children?
"learning which takes place early in life should have especially great influence on pasting personality characteristics" (53).
the authors suggest the impact is so strong that when an adult is conflicted between a positive and negative assessment of a leader, they will rely on the more longest held belief--that form childhood, and thus the more positive perspective.
This leads to stability of the system. (kind of a weak conclusion at this point... i imagine greenstein goes into more detail, as the book progresses... but this is the conclusion drawn, in a paragraph, from this chapter).